Privacy Policy

When we provide our services, which include Internet access, local and long distance telephone, television, additional voice, broadband and data services such as call routing, and alarm monitoring for your home or business, we necessarily obtain certain information about you. This information may include your name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, credit information, payment information, and contact information. We may also gather information about how you use our services. And some services, like alarm monitoring, require us to obtain additional information about your home or business, and how you would like to use the service.

We also gather some information from visitors to our websites and those who click on our Internet ads, such as the user's operating system, location, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and what sites the user visited immediately before or after our site.

Recording, reviewing or monitoring of your interactions with YELCOT. For quality assurance and training, we sometimes review email correspondence and record or listen to calls to or from our customer service and repair personnel, sales offices, and business account managers. We also save screen shots when customers give our repair personnel remote access to their computers for technical support.

Network management. We use information generated on our networks to manage those networks, to plan for future development, and to keep our services running reliably and efficiently. For example, we monitor data to check for viruses, to control spam, to prevent attacks that might disable our services, to ensure that your traffic does not violate your subscriber agreement or our acceptable use policies, and to guard against other inappropriate or illegal activity. This may involve looking at the characteristics of our network traffic, such as traffic volumes, beginning and ending points of transmissions, and the types of applications being used to send traffic across our network. In limited circumstances, we need to look into the content of the data (such as the specific websites being visited, files being transmitted, or application being used) for the purposes described above, in circumstances when we are concerned about fraud or harassment, to repair a problem we detect or that a customer contacts us about, or when we are providing the content of broadband traffic to law enforcement which we only do as authorized by law.

How does YELCOT use customer information?

We may use customer information to provide our services and keep you informed of changes to them, to market our services and to plan improvements to the services we offer and the way we interact with our customers.

Does YELCOT share customer information?

Yes, but we do so responsibly. YELCOT is made up of a number of companies and we share information among them as permitted by applicable law. We also use other companies to help us sell and bill for our services, and we necessarily share information with them. We share information with companies that give us credit evaluations (and let them use the information we give them to provide credit evaluation services for others), collect our unpaid bills, or provide other services to us such as advice on products or services our customers may be interested in. Our contracts with those companies require them to keep the information safe and confidential.

Additionally, we give customer information to other carriers and service providers when they need the information to provide their services, bill for them or verify accounts, when they have our customer's consent, or when they have a legal right to the information. And we will also share information with another provider if we suspect fraud, harassment, a threat to their networks, or some other unlawful activity. We may also provide information to government agencies (other than law enforcement) to help with communications assistance programs, or to gain benefits for our company like lower mailing fees and to help ensure that our customers get their bills and other information from us more economically and reliably. And we share information with law enforcement when the law allows us to do so, such as in emergencies or to protect our rights and property, including our network and the networks of others. We also respond to lawful requests for information from both law enforcement and private parties. The law requires us to share names and phone numbers with emergency service providers, whether that information is publicly available in directories or not.

We also must share similar information with directory publishers (who publish white pages, yellow pages and other similar directories) and directory assistance providers (who provide telephone numbers or addresses to those asking for that information). In some cases we limit how this information is used. And in all cases these companies must honor restrictions you have asked for, such as that your information not be published or used for marketing.

If you have elected to have your name, address and telephone number published in white pages directories (which means that it will be public information), that information may be used by others for their own marketing or to create marketing lists.

What choices do our customers have about the information we gather and how we use it?

You have some choices about what customer information we gather and how we use it.

You can choose whether to be included in a published directory or directory assistance services. Under federal law, directory publishers and directory assistance providers must honor restrictions requested by our customers, such as that the information not be published or used for marketing.
If you have elected to have your name, address and telephone number published in white pages directories (which means that it will be public information), we allow that information to be used by others for their own marketing or to create marketing lists.
What access do customers have to information about themselves?
You may access information about yourself in three ways:

Through your bill, whether you receive it by mail or electronically.
If you are a residential customer and have an E-Care Account you may access account information online.
You can also call us to discuss your account or to authorize someone else to talk with us about your services or other account
details.
How long does YELCOT retain customer information?
How long we keep different types of information is determined by business requirements and applicable state and federal laws and regulations.
How does YELCOT secure customer information?
We take the security of our customer information seriously. We do several things to protect it:

We have administrative, physical and technical controls to safeguard it; and
We train our employees on the importance of protecting it; and
We require businesses that act on our behalf and have access to our information to keep information about you confidential
and secure.

Does YELCOT contact customers via telephone?
We may occasionally contact customers to share information regarding available services. If you do not want to receive these calls, you may ask to be placed on the YELCOT Internal “Do Not Call” list. In compliance with federal and state laws, upon your request, we will make a note in our files that you have asked to be placed on the YELCOT Internal “Do Not Call” list
To add your telephone number to our Internal “Do Not Call” list, you may make the request via email to privacy@www.yelcot.com or by calling any of our YELCOT offices. You may also request that the YELCOT customer service representative place your number on the Internal “Do Not Call” list when you receive a sales call.

You must provide all telephone numbers you wish to include on our Internal “Do Not Call” list.
Please allow up to 30 days for your telephone number to be removed from any current sales programs.
Your telephone number will remain on our Internal “Do Not Call” list for five years.
Being on the YELCOT Internal “Do Not Call” list, means that we you will not receive sales calls from YELCOT. We may
still contact you for non-solicitation and non-telemarketing purposes, which could include surveys or billing and other service
related matters.
Requesting that your telephone number be placed on the YELCOT Internal “Do Not Call” list will not prevent sales calls
from other companies. You may place your telephone number on the National Do Not Call list by going online at www.donotcall.gov or calling 888-382-1222.

Questions regarding YELCOT’s Privacy Policy?
If you have questions about this policy or our practices, please email us at privacy@www.yelcot.com